Forum on Victorian Studies and Cultural Studies
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“THE DISTURBANCES OVERSEAS”: A COMPARATIVE REPORT ON THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH STUDIES
Regenia Gagnier a1
a1 University of Exeter
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AbstractThis
is
an
adaptation
of
a
talk
first
presented
to
the
Council
for
College
and
University
English
(CCUE)
conference
on
English
for
the
Millennium,
Sept.
1996.
CCUE
is
the
British
professional
body
that
represents
the
discipline
and
departments
of
English
in
England,
Scotland,
and
Wales.
The
talk
was
meant
to
provide
a
transatlantic
perspective
on
the
future
of
the
discipline.
Originally
it
was
published
in
CCUE
News
(June
1997)
and
later
adapted
to
presentations
throughout
the
U.K.
The
excerpts
here
focus
on
issues
of
multiculturalism,
interdisciplinarity,
and
cultural
studies.
WHEN I DRAW ON MY EXPERIENCE in the United States it is not because I am unaware that the centrality of English literary history is less controversial in England than in its former colony, but because the areas that I see as fundamental to the future of English — a diverse Anglophone population and the demands of the marketplace — are fundamental to both. Twenty years ago, American and British academics were different worlds. The formal democratization of the university and official ideologies of neoliberalism, or market orientation, have brought them closer together. My argument is that the future of English depends less on theories or ideas than on human geographies, institutional conditions, and our embeddedness in market society.
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